Another day, another special edition sports car costing a thick chunk of a million dollars. A collective yawn by the motoring peanut gallery. Because when 60 grand can buy you a used electric vehicle - like a Tesla Model S - that can go toe-to-toe with any car for speed on public roads, manufacturers of the expensive stuff really need to look elsewhere for the differentiation.
When speed is democratized and relatively cheaply available, it no longer matters that the new Lamborghini model can go 0-60 miles-an-hour in under 2.5 seconds. Who cares? Going fast is mere table stakes at this point. What else are you offering that pleasures the other senses? How does a car make the driver feel?
Give Porsche credit: the reason 911 GT3s are the wealthy car enthusiasts’ version of Pokemon cards is because they are offering more than just pure speed. A naturally-aspirated flat-six engine that sings a heavenly tune. The best feeling manual transmission on planet earth. Delightfully calibrated and feelsome steering. These are sensations that tingles and fizzes without the need to go outrageous velocities.
Other makers of mass-produced fast cars need to recognize that chasing after ever diminishing speed returns has reached a dead end. Fast EVs have put a death note to that arms race. Now it’s probably true that there’s enough wealth out there that Mercedes-AMG’s half million 30-unit limited edition thing has no problem selling out. But even Affalterbach recognizes that ultimate quickness is no longer the meal ticket. The CLE 646 is real-wheel drive only, and carries not a single cell of hybrid battery onboard.
Perhaps there’s hope! I would certainly like to see more manufactures bring out cars that tug at the enthusiast heart strings, at the sacrifice of fast lap times. Something like the GMA T.50, just, you know, magnitudes cheaper. The Porsche 911 cannot be and remain the only answer, because it’s truly getting boring. When it’s the automatic solution for every car guy tech bro that struck it rich, it’s too easy to the point of uninteresting.
Speed is easy. The 911 is easy. Francis Bourgeois’s - host of The Grand Tour - $70,000 Honda Fit? Now that’s an infinitely interesting way to spend your car enthusiast money. Kudos.
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